


Morning's Peace

by Settiai



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age II
Genre: Community: femslashex, F/F, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-29
Updated: 2016-10-29
Packaged: 2018-08-27 18:01:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8411164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Settiai/pseuds/Settiai
Summary: The first morning after, in all its peacefulness.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [quintic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/quintic/gifts).



Hawke woke up with a crick in her neck and the familiar pins-and-needles feeling of an arm that was asleep. Frowning, she shifted in place and got ready to sit up...

... and something moved beside her in the bed.

She startled. Then memories from the night before flooded back into her head, and Hawke froze in place. Slowly, ever so slowly, she glanced to her side.

Merrill was curled up beside her, sleeping peacefully. The blankets were pushed down around her waist, leaving her pale chest uncovered.

"Oh," Hawke said, the word more a breath than anything else. She sat up as carefully as she could, slowly shaking her numb arm as the bedsheet dropped into her lap.

Beside her, Merrill murmured something that Hawke couldn't quite make out and shifted a little. She didn't wake up, though, which was something at least.

Hawke's bare breasts ached a bit in the chill of the room, and she glanced over at the fireplace. It was all but dead, a few glowing embers the only sign of the warmth it had been giving off when they'd gone to bed the night before. Biting her lip, she glanced at Merrill. She didn't want to wake her up, not even by accident, but at the same time... well, it was more than a little cold in the room. With a fair bit of reluctance, she looked back at the fireplace, reached out, and relit it as carefully as she could with her magic.

As her magic flooded the room, Hawke grimaced a little and glanced back at Merrill. There had been many a time when she was a child that she'd been woken up from a sound sleep by the presence of Father's or Bethany's magic being used somewhere nearby. Even now, as an adult, there had been a few times camping outside of the city where Anders's magic or, more rarely, Merrill's had startled her awake.

Merrill didn't stir.

Hawke let out a breath that she'd barely even realized she was holding.

Quietly, breathing as shallowly as she possibly could so that she didn't risk waking her, Hawke let her gaze drift over Merrill's sleeping form. She'd looked at her hundreds of times over the past few years, but it felt almost as if she was seeing her for the first time. Her dark hair was a mess, sticking out in every direction, and only the very tips of her ears peaked out from it. She looked surprisingly young in her sleep, and tension that Hawke had never even noticed was there had disappeared from her face.

Hawke had thought that she was beautiful since the very first moment they had met up on Sundermount. Seeing her like this, her handful of defenses stripped away, only confirmed it even more so.

It felt right, having her there beside her. Right in a way that Hawke hadn't quite expected, no matter how many times she might have idly daydreamed about what it would be like to wake up with Merrill beside her in bed.

Part of her, a large part, didn't want to wake Merrill up. If it had been up to her, Hawke would have gladly curled back up beside her in bed and made a day of it. The two of them had been dancing around each other for ages, and more than almost anything Hawke wanted to bask in the fact that the gorgeous woman that she'd long considered to be her best friend was apparently interested in being something more than that.

Unfortunately, there was a group of bandits an hour's journey outside the city that she had promised Aveline she'd help clear out.

With a quiet sigh, Hawke leaned over a pressed a gentle kiss to Merrill's forehead. Merrill stirred, but she didn't wake up. Smiling a bit, Hawke moved down her face a little and pressed another one against her lips, barely more than a peck before she pulled away again.

This time, Merrill's eyes fluttered open.

"Morning," Hawke said lightly.

Merrill blinked at her a few times, a hint of surprise flashing in her eyes that was quickly followed by realization. For a heart stopping moment, Hawke almost expected her to jerk away and say that the night before had been a mistake. She was careful not to let it show on her face, not yet, but she could feel ice slowly starting to move through her veins.

Then Merrill's mouth twisted into a sleepy smile. "Good morning."

Hawke had never realized that a smile could light up a room like Merrill's did.

She knew that she needed to get out of bed. She knew that Aveline would be there at any time, and that it would make the day much more tense than it needed to be if she wasn't ready when she got there. As much as she loved her like a sister, Aveline had made it clear that she didn't necessarily approve of… whatever it was that was slowly but surely happening between her and Merrill.

Andraste's tits, though, she didn't want to get up. Not now, and possibly not ever. Staying in bed with a naked Merrill beside her, wearing that smile on her face and nothing else, was sounding like a better and better life choice with every second that passed.

Merrill's smile faded a little. "What's wrong?" she asked, a hint of worry in her voice.

What could she say? Hawke had never claimed to be good at making smart decisions. It wouldn't hurt Aveline to wait a little while. If nothing else, she expected Mother would love to talk with her about the Guard or Donnic or whatever else it was that the two of them liked to talk about. For a few minutes. Or an hour. Or two. Hawke was nothing if not optimistic, after all.

"Absolutely nothing," Hawke said firmly, leaning down to press a kiss against Merrill's mouth. This one wasn't a chaste peck to wake her up, not by any means.

Morning breath or not, it was perfect.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me over on Tumblr. (http://settiai.tumblr.com/)


End file.
